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Helena
Kartrian fate, formerly in the service of Castanamir V. ''Biography'' Helena was born in 1051. Her father was the commander of the Esduroy harbor garrison. When she was six years old, she was playing in the courtyard when she noticed a strange man staring at her. The next morning, she was rowed out of the harbor with the stranger on a Marentian trireme. She never saw her father again. He remained loyal to the wizards but was killed as the army revolted in the civil war. Her mother sailed to Balvine before the fighting started and spent her last years living close to Helena. Helena herself was trained as a 'fate'. This institution was invented by Autarch Ashanar I, and meant that she would be trained to fight solely using her hands and feet and develop a high resistance to magic. The purpose of a fate is twofold, to protect and to punish. To protect the Kartrians and to punish the renegades. Ashanar I saw that women would be perfect for this. Obeying would come naturally for them, so they could serve well as bodyguards for arch mages. And, in the unlikely event that they would discover a renegade, it would be an extra insult to the renegade that his killer was a woman with no aptitude for magic. The word fate means that the 'fate' and the arch mage share their fates, if he dies, it is customary that she dies. It also means that a renegade will literally meet his fate if he encounters a 'fate'. As with any other fate, the most of Helena's life was spent training. In 1085, she went on her first mission along with an 'agent', i.e. a wizard of some ability. Then she trained some more, and gradually spent more time doing missions along with agents. By 1098, she was deemed worthy of being 'fate' for a member of the Supreme Council , but since the members are only replaced in case of death, she was not assigned before 1100. At that time Autarch Castanamir V's original fate Kara was killed by a meteor swarm. The autarch himself was not hit, a fact that made some observers wonder. In any case, Helena was made his new fate, but she had not served for long before Castanamir was taken ill. For two years healers fought, but only to postpone the inevitable. The official explanation was that Castanamir's soul was old, longevity treatments and cure spells could not revive his spirit. Still some questioned this explanation. Foul play or not, Helena now had to await the ruling of the Supreme Council. Well, the death of Castanamir could in no way be seen as a failure on her part. So, she would be free, if she was but to do one last service for Kartria. One last service that would take her eight years to perform. Omens had predicted major events ahead, especially one omen was interpreted as involving an amazon. Helena would be Kartria's main proponent in what came to be known as the Ring Saga. In 1104 she met with Hippoleia, the amazon destined to kill the renegade Ogonjok. The two developed a mutual friendship that would last five years. Helena might be Hippoleia's friend and act as an adventurer, but she was still a Kartrian fate. So when Finduil was captured by the renegade Brensor Khan in 1106, she rushed to Kirrlar as soon as she was informed of his whereabouts and summarily executed him. But The Lich was a far more powerful enemy. Many had died trying to kill him and more would. In 1106 a Chinloi spy known as "The Silencer" had infiltrated the Tower of the Dead and managed to locate Ogonjok's device. But the Silencer himself had fallen silent. Tarqin of Enders was able to retrieve the information by spending an unpleasant stay in the dungeon of the Tower. He too, would have had his stay prolonged indefinitely, had not Helena, Hippoleia and Mathias (a non-Kartrian fire wizard, known as the "Vain") rescued him in 1107. Now the means to kill Ogonjok was at hand, but Ogonjok had been alerted. Helena, Hippoleia and Tarqin waited for two years, but the undying does not forget. At last, they went in, only because they did not dare wait any longer. For the purpose was not to kill Ogonjok, it was to take the Black Ring from his finger, the Black Ring that Finduil would somehow substitute for the Ring of Madness, if that Ring could be found. In the end, Hippoleia destroyed the device and so Ogonjok died, and Helena recovered the Black Ring. But Ogonjok had seen the future and prepared himself. His body died, but not his spirit. And if he could not avert destiny, he could exact vengeance. So Hippoleia died irrecoverably to Helena's deep sorrow. But a fate never rests if there is danger. And Bandagora itself was endangered. So she continued onwards into the Nightlands of the drow, where the motley crew surrounding Finduil fought along with the superheroes of the continent. The chances of success were slim indeed, but she soldiered on. Little did she appreciate the childish pranks of Finduil's so-called friends. As anyone could see, these small-time adventurers were out of their depths and tried to make the best of it by making adolescent jokes upon each other. One man was different, Kernla the Ontainian. Perhaps he too had chewed off a bigger bite than he could swallow, but as a friend of Finduil he would do whatever he could to help the world. No glib diplomat, that was certain, and more often than any other the butt of some silly practical joke. But this he took in his stride, and he never hesitated in a fight, he would charge into battle with such unflinching courage that Helena could not help admiring his determination. Helena and Kernla did not talk together much, but they gradually drifted together. In the end, neither fought Azemilk in the final confrontation, but that did not matter as long as he was defeated. In the aftermath, Kernla asked Helena to marry him, to her great surprise. She knew in her mind that magic had halved the sixty years she had almost lived, but even so, she had always been a servant, a tool. Now this man asked her to live by his side, to make a family, to be his equal. She was flattered, and as she realized that she was free to do so, she admitted to herself that she was in love. She gladly accepted, and May 1110, the two were married in Kangrisorn by the Pope himself. In 1115 Kernla was made the lord of a shire in Hardnit, but life has not yet settled down to the luxurious quiet life of a rich noble. Kernla might be a hero in the eyes of the King Hendrick , but to the local petty nobility, he is a barbarian and a troublemaker. Indeed, Kernla has been new to job of being a ruler, but the odds were stacked against him as prejudice made him the favorite target of local slander. Had it not been for Helena's experience with court politics, the rulership of Kernla might have been short-lived. However, even with her experienced hand, the couple eventually realized that the hassle of managing a shire was not worth. She now lives quietly at at an undisclosed loaction with Kernla and their two twin sons.